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PARIS UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION OF 1867. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 

ALBANY, FEBRUARY 12, 1868, 

By ELLIOT C?'C0WDIN. 









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I I STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 



AT THEIR ANNUAL MEETING IN THE CAPITOL AT 



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S . ALBANY, FEB'Y 12. 1868, 

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By ELLIOT C. COWDIN. 




PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



£ ALBANY : 

FEINTING HOUSE OF CHAS. VAN BENTHUYSEN AND SONS. 

18G8. 



ADDEESS. 



♦♦> «»» 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 

The opening of the past year found the 
attention of the world irresistibly attracted to 
one of its most brilliant and renowned cities, 
Paris, the capital of France and center of civi- 
lization in Europe. 

For centuries Paris has been watched by 
Europe, as often in fear as in admiration. Now 
the entire world was led to think of it, for its 
gates were flung wide open, not for the exit of 
armed hosts pouring forth to battle and to con- 
quest as in former days, but to welcome, with 
a boundless hospitality, the representatives of 
all nations, inviting them to bring thither and 
combine the products of their soil, their labor, 
and their art, in peaceful competition and in 
generous rivalry. 

To the Universal Exposition of 1867 all were 
welcome guests, irrespective of nationality or 



of creed. It is of this great exhibition, which 
it was my privilege to attend as one of the 
Commissioners from the United States, that I 
purpose to speak this evening in compliance 
with your special request. 

Paris itself is a perpetual Universal Exhibi- 
tion. It epitomizes not only France, for which 
it is only but another name, but civilization 
itself. 

It is a many-sided city, and each of its angles 
exhibits its own peculiar aspect. Hence, adapt- 
ing itself to every variety of taste, it has been 
depicted in almost as many different colors as 
the chameleon. Yet every description is true, 
for it wears a rainbow garment. One tells you 
it is a city of fashion and frivolity; another 
that it is a city of learning, science, law, reli- 
gion ; a third, the focus of turmoil and insur- 
rection. It all depends upon the standpoint of 
the observer, the color of the medium through 
which he looks, and the time of his visit. Look 
at Paris on a festive day, its streets and squares 
filled with radiant faces, and you would think 
that the Golden Age had been restored, and 
here was another Arcadia. 



Look at Paris on a day of revolution, the 

cannon roaring in its streets, its barricades 

- 

emitting death ; even women and children fight- 
ing in the ranks of battle ; and you would say 
that one spirit of the first-born Cain reigned in 
those hearts. Such extreme contrasts does this 
wonderful city present in its history, because 
here all the phases of human passion and char- 
acter have been exhibited as on the broader 
stage of the world. Here, especially, there has 
been a concentration of conflicting elements. 

But we have now to do with happier days — 
with the pacific aspect of Paris under a strong 
and intelligent municipal administration. It is 
a beautiful city, and every day growing more 
beautiful, for wonderful improvements are in 
progress, conceived in the most liberal spirit 
and conducted at a vast expenditure of wealth 
and labor. The spectator, looking down for the 
first time on the immense area of the city from 
the summit of the Triumphal Arch, or the Col- 
umn of July, and contemplating the sweep of 
the Boulevards and Avenues, the sidewalks of 
which are as wide as many of our streets, the 
solidity and elegance of the buildings, all (with- 
out exception) of light colored stone, the lines 



6 

of trees running in every direction, the numer- 
ous squares with their foliage and fountains, the 
splendid cathedrals and churches that lift their 
spires and domes to Heaven, the noble bridges 
that span the Seine, the stately columns that 
record the victories and glories of the past, the 
palaces and public edifices with their almost 
interminable facades, the wooded environs, dot- 
ted with villas and villages, and insulating the 
capital in an ocean of verdure; the spectator, I 
say, is lost in admiration of the scene before 
him, and admits that Paris is indeed the most 
attractive city of the world. 

Descending from his airy eminence and plung- 
ing into the busy world of Paris, a unit in the 
sum of its life, the visitor is yet more astonished 
at the vitality and variety of its existence. 
How ceaseless the tide that ebbs and flows 
through its mighty arteries from sunrise till 
midnight! What wealth and taste in the stores 
that line the Boulevards and crowd the passages 
and arcades ! Above all what order and neatness 
everywhere ; what courtesy and civility ! 

The workman in his blouse manifests as much 
self-respect as a counselor of state or a marshal 
of the empire. The dignity of manhood now 



asserts itself in every individual, whatever may 
be his rank and calling. Parisian citizenship is 
regarded as much a title to honor as was Roman 
citizenship in the days of the great Republic. 
Yet there is no offensive self-assertion. The 
citizen claims for himself no more respect than 
he accords to others. 

Cleanliness is another distinctive feature of 
the French Capital. An army of street sweep- 
ers, working at hours when their labor is invisi- 
ble, remove every particle of dirt from the 
thoroughfares. 

Those who visited Paris for the first time 
during the Exposition may have thought that 
this universal neatness was an exceptional fea- 
ture, but it is not so ; it is the normal condition 
of the city. 

Of course busy preparations were made by a 
capital which had issued cards of invitation to 
the world. Buildings in process of construction 
were rapidly finished, and the wrecks of recent 
demolitions removed, that no unsightly object 
might offend a stranger's eye; and then, when 
all was ready, Paris welcomed her guests with 
a bright and radiant smile, giving cordial recep- 
tion to emperor and peasant, citizen and king. 



8 

Let us hasten to the great center of attrac- 
tion, the Champ de Mars, the site of the Expo- 
sition, which merits a brief notice. It is a level 
area of about one hundred acres, in front of the 
Military School, and was used prior to the 
Exposition as a parade and drill ground, and for 
reviews and public celebrations. 

The Champ de Mars occupies a memorable 
place in the history of France. On the 14th of 
July, 1790, it was the scene of the great Festi- 
val of the Federation designed to recall the 
taking of the Bastille and to inaugurate the new 
constitution of the kingdom. 

In the center of the space rose the altar of 
the country where Talleyrand, then Bishop of 
Autun (who successively supported the Revolu- 
tion, the Empire and Restored Royalty), cele* 
brated mass. 

Four hundred thousand men, women and 
children, occupied the terraces of green turf 
surrounding the ampitheatre built expressly for 
their accommodation. The altar and the throne 
were placed side by side. The white flag of 
the royal troops and the tri-color of the armed 
populace were blended fraternally, like the 
masses that upheld them ; and the roll of hun- 



9 

dreds of drums and the peal of hundreds of 
trumpets mingled with the thunder tones of 
popular acclamation. 

Louis XVI did not ascend the altar and swear 
fidelity to the constitution. He uttered the 
oath, and a young officer, nominated that day 
commandant general of all the national guards 
in the realm, mounted on a white horse, caught 
the words from his lips, rode round the immense 
circle, repeating them to the multitude, and 
then, on behalf of the king, solemnly pronounced 
them at the altar. 

This young officer, then in the flower of man- 
hood, the observed of all observers as the royal 
deputy, the central figure in the celebration, 
wearing a three-cornered American cocked hat, 
as worn by the generals of the Continental army, 
was none other than the friend of Washington 
and of Franklin, the hero of two hemispheres, 
the illustrious La Fayette. 

He had left a brilliant court, a happy home 
and an adored bride, to offer his sword, his fortune 
and his life to the cause of American Indepen- 
dence. He returned with honorable wounds, 
inspired with American ideas, to participate in 

2 



10 

the disenthralment of his country, but not in the 
excesses of its revolution. 

In speaking of the Act of Federation on the 
Champ de-Mars, Everett says of La Fayette: 
"Of all the oaths that day. taken by the master 
spirits of the time, his was perhaps the only one 
kept inviolate." 

Dearly did he pay for his fidelity by years of 
suffering, but he lived to return to our own shores 
the honored, almost idolized guest of the nation, 
lived to be the controlling spirit of a second 
revolution in his native land, and died revered 
and lamented, crowned with a spotless fame. 

The very year after the feast of the Federa- 
tion, the Champ de Mars was desecrated by a 
bloody combat between the national guards and 
the insurgent populace, who had there planted 
the red flag of revolt and murder. 

Well might Lamartine, in 1848, refuse, at the 
peril of his life, with hundreds of muskets 
leveled at his head in the Square of the Hotel 
de Ville, to accord to the maddened rioters the 
red flag which they then demanded, an heroic 
refusal, couched in words of undying eloquence. 
" I will refuse, even to death, this flag of blood ; 
for the red flag which you offer us has only 



11 

made the tour of the Champ de Mars trailed 
through the blood of the people in '91 and '93, 
while the tri-color has made the circuit of the 
world with the name, the glory and the liberty of 
the country ." 

On the 1st of June, 1815, the Champ de Mars 
again witnessed an imposing demonstration, 
the celebration of Napoleon's resumption of 
the throne, and the consecration of the Eagles 
he had so often led to victory, but which he 
was doomed in a few days to behold stricken 
down at Waterloo, his last and fatal field of 
battle. 

But the souvenirs of the scene are not all 
warlike. In the month of September, 1798, 
Francis de Neufchateau, Minister of the Interior 
of the French Republic, inaugurated the first 
known exhibition, which was opened on the same 
site as that of this year, in a row of barracks con- 
taining the products of 110 exhibitors. This 
was modest, but in the words of the minister, 
"the torch of liberty was kindled," and the 
result has been that in the place of the humble 
stalls, inaugurated by Francis de Neufchateau 
and his 110 exhibitors, 42,237 citizens, gathered 
from all the countries of the globe, displayed 



12 

in the past year the marvels of human indus- 
try, taste and skill. 

The Exposition of 1798 covered a space of 
twenty-seven square yards; that of 1867 occu- 
pies nearly 500,000 square yards without reck- 
oning the Island of the Seine devoted to the 
display of agricultural implements. The first 
Exposition was exclusively French. It was 
only in 1848 that M. Trouve-Chauvel, one of the 
Ministers of General Cavaignac, Chief of the 
Executive pcwer of the French Republic, con- 
ceived the idea of opening these meetings to 
the people of the entire world. 

Political troubles prevented the realization of 
this project, but Great Britain adopted the plan 
which resulted in the erection of the Crystal 
Palace in Hyde Park in 1851. There in the 
presence of 25,000 spectators, Queen Victoria, 
wearing her crown and decked in her royal 
robes, turned to the North, West, East and South, 
successively, and four times proclaimed, in a 
loud voice, the opening of the World's Fair. 

The first French Universal Exposition was 
held in 1855 in the Palace of Industry erected 
on the Champs Elysees, a spacious structure still 
standing, and used this year for the distribution 



13 

of the prizes, a ceremony of extraordinary 
interest, to which I shall allude hereafter. 

The English Fair was supposed to be a prelude 
to universal peace. The Paris Exhibition, on 
the contrary was held in the midst of the 
Crimean war. " It stood on its own merits, as 
a display of industry and of art, a temple of 
peace amid the clash of arms ; but a temple in 
which it was impossible for any to worship 
without the intrusion of thoughts which took 
their color from the world without, confused 
as it was with mortal conflicts and teeming 
with political convulsion." 

It is a curious- fact, illustrative of the rapid 
changes of European affairs, that during the 
Exhibition of 1855 France was fighting Russia, 
while during that of 1867 the Emperor of Rus- 
sia was her honored guest. 

Although the first Universal Exhibition of 
England preceded a period of strife, and the 
first French Universal Exhibition was opened 
in a time of war, let us indulge the hope that 
this second French Universal Exhibition may 
be a prelude to a period of lasting peace. The 
erection of the Temple of Concord on the 
Champ de Mars is at least a fact of happy augury. 



14 

Seen from the neighboring heights the Expo- 
sition of 1867 presented as a whole the aspect 
of a vast camp occupied by the representatives 
of all the nations of the globe. Specimens of 
every known architecture were crowded to- 
gether in strange association ; Moslem domes 
and minarets, Japanese huts, Swiss chalets, 
Egyptian temples, Turkish kiosks, and Gothic 
chapels. Here were broad belts of water gliding 
on their way, and glittering over artificial rocks 
in bright cascades; there a light-house and a 
lantern ; yonder, tall chimneys and pipes, throw- 
ing out columns of smoke and steam, and in the 
midst of all, the colossal mass of the main palace, 
built of cast iron, pierced with arched windows, 
and in which some visitors thought they detected 
a likeness to a Roman ampitheatre. But the 
building had really no resemblance to coloseum 
or palace, no pretence to architectural beauty, 
and only fitness to commend it. 

The park which occupied nearly double the 
area of the palace, presented the strangest 
possible mixture of buildings, but in that very 
circumstance lay its attraction, since to afford 
scope for contrast and comparison, was one of 
the leading objects of the enterprise. 



15 

Here you saw a massive Egyptian temple — 
no piece of fancy-work, but an exact reproduc- 
tion. There were the vast pillars, the huge 
seated statues, the colossal sphynxes. Not far off 
was a copy of the temple of Xocchicalco, and in 
comparing both, you were struck by the wonder- 
ful similarity between the ancient Egyptian and 
the ancient Mexican ecclesiastical architecture. 
Farther on was a representation of the palace of 
the Bey of Tunis, its fanciful and graceful forms 
and brilliant and florid ornamentation reminding; 
you of those glories of the Moorish Alhambra, 
so gracefully described by Irving. Here again 
you came to an Eastern caravansary, where 
oriental workmen were busy plaiting mats, 
and it required no great stretch of the imagina- 
tion to fancy yourself in Cairo or Damascus. 
A few more steps brought you to a cavern filled 
with water, in which divers clothed in sub- 
marine armor, and breathing through tubes, 
showed how the inventive genius of man has 
enabled him to mingle with fishes in their 
native element. Then there were pavillions 
splendidly decorated, constructed for the special 
use of the Emperor and Empress, the Viceroy 
of Egypt and the. sovereigns. 



16 

There were churches of different Christian 
creeds, and buildings where Bibles and religi- 
ous publications in different languages were 
distributed. 

In the park also were buildings devoted to 
the display of objects crowded out of the 
palace or too cumbrous to be exhibited there, 
such as colossal statues, monster guns, fountains, 
pagodas. 

Here the Dutch had a huge structure filled 
with railroad material. Belgium had a gallery 
of Fine Arts and an equestrian statue of King 
Leopold. In the reserved park were foliage 
and flowers, and cages filled with bright plumed 
or sweet voiced birds, and sheets of water 
where gold and silver fishes sported. 

Here were acquariums displaying their living 
marvels, strange shell fish and the wonders of 
the sea. In the English and American Parks, 
separated by an alley, there were vast collec- 
tions of railroad material. In the former there 
were monster guns, in the latter not a single 
cannon, but a better representative — the model 
of an American school-house. 

In the Egyptian department were relics that 
carried the mind back in a breathless flight 



17 

through centuries ; jewels buried with the 
mummy of a queen of Thebes, who lived when 
Joseph was prime minister of Pharaoh. 

The supply of water from the Seine for the 
use of the engines in the Park, was effected by 
five enormous pumps, in company with the 
steam engine of the French frigate Friedland, 
which alone drew up 1,100,000 gallons per hour. 
This water was received into a basin made to 
resemble a ruined castle, flowed into the garden, 
supplied all the wants of the Exhibition, formed 
a lake at the foot of the light-house and was 
finally restored to the Seine. 

An international theatre, and a large hall for 
scientific and social meetings, were outside of 
the palace, together with a belt of restaurants 
and refreshment saloons, some of vast capacity. 

The palace of the Exposition was in the form 
of an elongated oval. The outer circumference 
was devoted to machinery and was 3,936 feet in 
length. Then came the gallery of raw products ; 
being nearer to the centre of the ellipse, it was 
necessarily shorter, and so with the succeeding 
zones, which diminished as they approached the 
inner circumference of the ellipse. In the centre 
of all was an open garden surrounded by statues. 
3 



18 

Each class of manufactures or works of art 
made the entire circuit of the building. The 
concentric rings were termed galleries. The 
inner circle of all, or Gallery No. 1, was devoted 
to works of art. No. 2, to materials for and 
application of the liberal arts, such as printing, 
books, stationery, scientific apparatus, surgical, 
mathematical and musical instruments, &c. No. 
3, to furniture and other articles for dwellings. 
No. 4, to clothing, comprising stuffs and other 
fabrics worn as dress. No. 5, to raw materials, 
the products of mines, collieries, forests, &c. 
No. 6, to machines and apparatus and tools in 
general. No. 7, to cereals, vegetables and other 
articles of food, fresh and preserved, in different 
states of preparation; another gallery under 
the name of Museum, was devoted to the history 
of labor. In the central pavillion of all, was a 
collection of coins, weiglits and measures of all 
countries. The concentric rings referred to, 
were traversed by avenues or streets, radiating 
from the centre like the spokes of a wheel. 
Each of the spaces thus bounded from the centre 
to the circumference was devoted to the products 
of a nation. So, that, if you wished to compare 
the achievements of all the nations in one class 



19 

of productions, you followed the course of the 
gallery or zone round the building. If to acquaint 
yourself with the products of any one nation in 
all the branches of industry, you confined your- 
self to the space allotted to it, going from the 
centre to the circumference or vice versa. An 
arrangement so simple, by which order was 
brought out of apparent chaos, must inevitably 
be followed in all future exhibitions of this 
kind. In all former exhibitions the visitor, 
overwhelmed and confused by the mass of objects 
presented to his view, without a clue to the 
labyrinth, went away day after day with his 
head as full of incongruous articles as an old 
curiosity shop. 

Our own country, though far from presenting 
its claims as forcibly as it might have done, yet 
made an honorable figure in the Exposition, 
and in some respects agreeably surprised the 
European visitors. That we excelled in labor- 
saving machinery and in useful inventions 
was a fact of universal notoriety; that our 
destructive arms and our ambulances were 
almost unrivaled, was also conceded ; but that 
in the manufacture of musical instruments we 
challenged competition with European skill, 



20 

and that our artists have produced works that 
invited European admiration, were facts known 
but to the select few. American art was there- 
fore a revelation to the many, and the wonder- 
ful landscapes of Church, his "Rainy Season in 
the Tropics," and "The Falls of Niagara;" 
Bierstadt's "Rocky Mountains," and Hunting- 
ton's "Republican Court in the Time of Wash- 
ington," always attracted throngs of spectators. 
The exquisite humor and truth of Eastman 
Johnson's "Old Kentucky Home" was keenly 
relished, and the spirit of Winslow Homer's 
reminiscence of the war, "Confederate Prison- 
ers at the Front," was appreciated. 

No foreigners, however, knew the story of 
the young Federal officer who figures in that 
picture and gives it its interest to American 
eyes. They knew not that the original of that 
spirited figure left his bride at the altar to 
march to the front as a private soldier, and that 
he fought his way to distinction, rising from 
the ranks to the command of a corps. 

Among the many pieces of marble statuary 
of modern artists, none was more admired than 
the " Sleeping Faun," a figure of antique grace, 
finely conceived and admirably executed, the 



21 

whole wrought by the fair hand of an American 
girl, Miss Harriet Hosmer, of Watertown, Mass. 

The magnificent American locomotive and 
tender, the steam engines, and machines of va- 
rious kinds — some of vast capacity — attracted 
much attention. 

"What do you deal in?" asked George the 
Third of the partner of James Watt in the busi- 
ness of making steam engines. 

" What kings delight in — power," was the 
prompt reply. 

But happily that was a power which makes the 
people great — not their kings. 

Contrast for a moment the power which the 
immortal Watt produced by steam, astonishing 
as it then was, with that of the wonderful ma- 
chinery displayed at the Exposition, and how 
immense the progress ! 

If the stupendous motive power of America 
excited surprise and admiration, so did that 
wonderful planetarium which exhibited the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, while phi- 
lanthropists experienced the purest pleasure in 
contemplating the Bible engraved in relief for 
the use of the blind, giving light to those who 
sit in darkness. 



22 

A distinguished Frenchman, a great admirer 
of our country, who visited the Exhibition with 
me, expressed his views of the industrial future 
of the United States in nearly the following 
terms : 

" The gallery of raw material exhibited by 
the great Republic must attract attention even 
more than her machinery, her arms and her 
musical instruments. Nature, in fact, has be- 
stowed every gift upon this grand country. It 
reaches the icy North abounding there with furs 
and woods of the boreal regions. At the South 
it touches on the inter-tropical countries, where 
it finds cotton and those cultures which we call 
in Europe exotic. It does not lack coal. The 
immense extent of its territory supplies it with 
metals of all kinds. Its manufactures can there- 
fore develop themselves independently of all the 
manufactures of the world, 

" Its manufacturing liberty may equal its po- 
litical liberty. It only needs," continued my 
enthusiastic friend, "to borrow from other coun- 
tries some of their experience and intellectual 
wealth. Thanks to the bounties of nature," said 
he, " American industry can adopt the proud Ital- 
ian device, 'Italia fara de se y ' and say in the true 
spirit of independence, ' I will do it all myself.' " 






23 

One of the charms of the Exposition was the 
power of ubiquity conferred upon the visitors. 
As in the Arabian Tales, a wish wafts a man 
from one country to another, so here a step took 
you from East to West, from North to South. 
One moment you were at home in America, the 
next you were standing in Japan ; now you were 
in England, again in India. And it was no illu- 
sion, for everything that surrounded you was 
tangible and real. 

" Harvest tool and husbandry, 
Loom and wheel and engin'ry, 
Secrets of the sullen mine, 
Steel and gold, and corn and wine, 
Fabric rough, or fairy fine, 
Sunny tokens of the line, 
Polar marvels, and a feast 
Of wonder out of West and East, 
And shapes and hues of part divine, 
All of beauty, all of use, 
That one fair planet can produce, 

Brought from under every star, 
Blown from over every main, 
And mixt, as life is mixt with pain, 

The works of peace with works of war." 

Here were real Egyptian temples, and Turkish 
mosques, and Christian churches, and Russian 
houses ; and you were elbowed by Turks, Greeks, 
Arabs, Chinese and Swedes, wearing their national 

costumes. 

" The world was all before you where to choose." 



24 

The English exhibitors showed great taste in 
the arrangement of their products. 

The silk manufacturers of Manchester built 
up a graceful Gothic structure of bobbins decked 
with all the colors of the rainbow. 

There was another delicate edifice made en- 
tirely of the black lead used in making pencils. 
This fanciful display, on French ground, was 
•quite a success. 

There was a fine collection of English decorated 
china, happily imitating the famous Sevres por- 
celain. The English goldsmiths also had reason 
to be proud of their achievements. Some of the 
Race cups were splendid works of art. 

But in machinery, cotton goods, and cheap 
and serviceable fabrics, the English manufactu- 
rers showed their preeminence, and vindicated 
the character of England for solidity and utility. 
Grace is a superadded quality in their produc- 
tions, an exotic, while it is the basis of every 
thing produced in France. 

The most ordinary household article in France 
must be elegant at least in design, or it is com- 
paratively valueless. Hence in articles of luxury 
the French defy and will continue to defy all 
rivalry. Fashion sits enthroned in Paris and no 
revolution can unseat her. 



25 

The Brazilian display was the most remarka- 
ble of all the consignments from South America.* 
In a vast hall the foliage of a virgin forest, with 
its trailing vines arching over the spectators' 
heads, was imitated with success. 

Here were exhibited specimens of all the val- 
uable woods, and their number is enormous ; 
mahogany, rosewood, ebony, &c, furnished by 
the boundless forests of Brazil. Elsewhere, you 
might behold how the skilled labor of the French 
transforms this rich material into splendid fur- 
niture, adorned with all the graces of art. 

Let us add that many of these splendid woods 
imported into France in rude blocks, after being 
manufactured by French artisans, find their way 
back to their native country changed into tables, 
chairs, cabinets, pianos, and what-nots, for the 
embellishment of the houses of the Brazilian 
planters or the French colonists of Montevideo. 

Modern industry thus realizes the ancient fable 
of King Midas, and turns all it touches into 
gold. 

The Spanish-American Republics did not con- 
tribute largely to the Exposition. A glance at 
the cases of the Central American Republics 
showed that the people who hold the keys of the 
4 



26 

passage between the Atlantic and Pacific are not 
a laborious and productive race. 

A step carries us to the vast realm of Southern 
Asia, China, Japan and Siarn. In these nations 
the arts and manufactures exhibit something of 
the childishness of old age. Brilliant gew-gaws, 
objects of luxury wrought in a style more eccen- 
tric and fanciful than artistic or imaginative, 
contrast most forcibly with the useful products of 
Anglo-Saxon genius, and show how the wave of 
civilization has receded to the West. 

Still, however, it would be unphilosophical 
to fail to note how, in obedience to the laws of 
action and reaction that govern the universe, 
as the ebb and flow of the tides sway the ocean, 
the extreme East catohes a new impulse from 
the extreme West. Thus the Japanese, an 
ingenious people, since diplomacy has brought 
them in communication with the United States, 
have adopted many of the fruits of our civili- 
zation. Commodore Perry presented the Japan- 
ese government, among other articles, with a 
miniature model of a railway and locomotive 
and a Dahlgren gun. In a very short time the 
Japanese, from the study of these alone, had 
built a railway and locomotive, and fabricated 
a complete battery of Dahlgrens. 



27 

Hindostan, Persia, Egypt,, Turkey and Mo- 
rocco, with their contributions, made up the 
sum of products* that fairly represented the 
East in the Great Exposition. They were 
tokens of the arts, indolence, pride, luxury 
and idolatry of Oriental life. Here were costly 
pipes, magnificent shawls, cloths of gold, rich 
carpets, splendid weapons of war, uncouth idols. 

Half a dozen rajahs sent their most valuable 
effects to an exhibition to which the King of 
Sweden contributed pictures, the creation of 
his own pencil, and the Emperor of France a 
model of a workingman's house planned by 
himself. 

But Peter the Great was in advance of 
Napoleon III, for he learned the trade of a 
ship-carpenter ; and Louis XVI was never 
happier than when he was displaying his skill 
as a lock-smith. A lock made by this unfortu- 
nate monarch was shown in the Exposition. 

In general the Oriental countries exhibited 
the almost hopeless decadence into which they 
have fallen. Turkey only displays energy and 
vitality in those portions of her empire which 
approximate the Danube, and these signs of life 
are manifested only in a population of European 



28 

origin. The influence of the crescent seems 
almost as baleful as that of the cross is benign. 

Egypt is also in arrears, though exhibiting 
more vitality than Turkey. 

Next we come to Italy, whose political status 
is not yet firmly defined and whose manufactur- 
ing development is to be looked for in the 
future. Fine specimens of the agriculture of 
Northern Italy were displayed, but nothing 
remarkable in manufacturing products. 

Southern Italy sent samples of the sulphurs 
of the famous volcanoes Etna and Vesuvius. A 
Roman monk, named Secchi, contributed a self 
regulating apparatus for recording the range of 
the thermometer, the quantity of rain fallen, 
and the changes of wind during a given period. 
Left out of doors over night the machine 
operates of itself, and its observations are 
accurate. 

In the fine arts, notwithstanding some re- 
markable productions, the decadence of Italy, 
from the days of the great masters, is painfully 
apparent. Even in the realm of music, her 
sceptre seemed to have passed to other hands. 

Russia sent her furs, ores, minerals and 
cereals. Situated between Europe and Asia, 



29 

Russia is a place of transit, though its chief 
city, St. Petersburg, is sealed up by ice on the 
water side during more than six months of the 
year. Moscow, the Holy City of the Greek 
religion, half Asiatic and half European in its 
character, is an immense entrepot of raw ma- 
terial. Thither caravans, traversing the whole 
breadth of the continent, bring the costly 
products of China and the East. No fewer 
than sixty-six different races of men acknow- 
ledge the sway of the Czar. 

The Russian contributions were very inter- 
esting. They exhibited a singular mixture of 
the East and West, of civilization and barbarism ; 
splendid silken robes, and sheepskin garments, 
wooden-ware and jewelry, furs and precious 
stones. Here were the malachite, the onyx 
and cornelian from the Ural and the Caucasus ; 
heaps of leather, splendid mosaics; and expo- 
nents of a high civilization, beautiful paintings 
and bronzes. 

The Scandinavian countries, formerly one, 
but now politically dissevered, were brought 
together in the Exposition. These three coun- 
tries, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, have 
many points of similitude. They are rich in 



30 

forests, which supply materials to the hand of 
industry, in rosins and other natural products. 
Salt and smoked fish are the staple food of the 
people of these sterile regions, who valiantly 
struggle against the frowns of Nature, and in 
their thrift and industry, present a strong 
contrast to the indolence of the favored East, 

" Where all save the spirit of man is divine." 

These countries also contribute various fish 
oils used in medicinal preparations. The fishing 
implements of the Norwegians and Icelanders, 
as shown in the Exhibition, are very interesting, 
and show how patience and industry contend 
against the disadvantages of- a harsh and cheer- 
less climate. 

Greece, whose glory lies in the past, contri- 
buted but little. What Edmond About said of 
the Greek department in the Great London 
World's Fair is applicable to the Exhibition of 
1867. " Honey in a pot, Corinth raisins in a 
jar, a little wine, a little cotton, a little madder, 
a handful of figs, a cube of marble, and a glass 
case containing a few Greek dresses." We 
ought in justice to add, that there were some 
sponges, coarse carpets, some furniture and 
very handsome swords and daggers. 



Q1 

But we are led to hope, as a result of the 
Exposition, that the germs of enterprise which 
exist in all nations, will be stimulated to 
develop themselves, in those regions where 
they lie dormant, by the example of those coun- 
tries which are marching in the van of progress. 

Spain and Portugal exhibit little manufac- 
turing energy. Agriculture is almost their only 
resource. The wine trade of Spain is one of the 
chief sources of wealth, and the making of bot- 
tle corks an important industrial employment. 

The manufacturing activity of Switzerland 
is a powerful argument in favor of free insti- 
tutions. Her valleys and lake shores are 
inhabited by an intelligent, well educated and 
industrious population. Silks, ribbons, muslins, 
embroideries, laces, straw braids, watches, 
musical boxes, and wood carvings are among 
the chief products of their skilled labor. 

Austria is the neighbor of Switzerland at 
the Exposition as she is on the map of Europe. 
Composed of different states, having each its 
peculiar genius, it has no well defined manufac- 
turing character. Vienna, the capital, is a sort 
of key-stone, binding the states together, and, as 
a place of transit, is of some importance. It had 



32 

in the Exhibition a fine collection of articles 
and in great variety, many of them closely resem- 
bling those of France. Vienna receives from 
Paris patterns of fashions and stuffs, copies and 
manufactures them, and literally floods the valley 
of the Danube and Southern Russia with these 
products. For some years, however, French 
rivalry has considerably hampered this wholesale 
copying business. 

Among the Austrian contributions to the Ex- 
position were numerous specimens of that splen- 
did Bohemian glass-ware which has long defied 
attempts at imitation and challenges the admira- 
tion of the world. 

Next to Austria comes her rival, Prussia, and 
the other German States, which are only satel- 
lites of the nation which Bismarck has raised to 
such European preeminence. 

Berlin, the capital of the Prussian states, is 
one of the principal manufacturing cities o" 
Germany, and its leading market in the wool 
trade, of which article many excellent specimens 
were displayed at the Exhibition. Upwards of 
7,000,000 lbs. of wool pass through Berlin in a 
single year. 

The German manufacturing system embraces 
almost all branches, and its expansive movement 



33 

is to the East, where Poland and Russia, yet un- 
developed countries, present a broad field for 
exportation. 

In the Exposition there were also fine specimens 
of German metallurgy, blocks of salt and coal, 
showing the extent of its minersal resources; 
specimens of the color known all over Europe 
as Prussian Blue ; superb silks and velvets from 
Crefeld, Elberfeld, Yiersen and vicinity. Elber- 
feld is a Prussian city situated near Dusseldorff, 
in the valley of the Wipper. This industrious 
city owes its prosperity to the French protestants 
of Touraine, driven from France by the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, an act which 
Benjamin Constant termed "the error of Louis 
XIV and the crime of his council." 

Belgium is the workshop of Europe, and its 
industry comprises almost every branch of manu- 
facture, from the labors of the unaided hand, as 
in the fabrication of its exquisite laces at Brussels, 
to the production of wonderful machinery at 
Liege. 

Holland, whose territory is limited, and whose 

chief activity is directed towards its colonies to 

the Southeast of Asia, sent to the Exposition 

specimens of the products of the Molucca Islands. 

5 



34 

Among the curiosities displayed were some singu- 
lar Javanese musical instruments and arms. 

A step further brings us to the French Depart- 
ment which occupies nearly half of the palace. 

The industry of France embraces almost every 
kind of manufactured article. All, however, 
having the same general character, taste, imagi- 
nation and elegant luxury. 

Every French artisan possesses the artistic 
sentiment. We may smile at the assumption by 
a barber of the title of "Artist in Hair," and yet 
there is an artistic skill in his manipulations. 

You remember the story of the French shoe- 
maker, who exhibited a beautiful slipper in his 
window. A gentleman, who admired it, and 
wished to purchase the pair, enquired for the 
mate. " Alas ! Monsieur," said the cordonnier, 
" there is no mate ; I made that one in a moment 
of inspiration" 

When Vatel, the great French cook, was 
concocting a new dish he could not be disturbed 
by visitors. " Gentlemen," his servant said to 
callers, "my master is not visible, he is composing" 
Vatel styled himself a composer like Rossini or 
Mozaet. 

Let us glance at French manufactures and 
particularly those of Paris. Parisian furniture 



35 

is certainly preeminently elegant. Here were 
chairs, tables and bedsteads, not only made of 
costly woods, but inlaid with ivory, marble, gold, 
glass and silver. There were canopied bedsteads 
of wonderful workmanship, the price of which 
would buy one of our large western farms, house, 
stock and tools. 

Sometimes the first artists are employed to 
paint the panels of these cabinets and bedsteads. 

When the Parisian workman has exhausted 
imagination and costliness, he goes back to his- 
torical models, and gives us mediaeval cabinets 
that look like Gothic churches, or reproduces the 
delicate columns of the Renaissance, or the Pom- 
padour arm-chairs of Louis XVth's time. 

TJie Parisian bronzes copy the most celebrated 
statues of antiquity, and a workman named Colas 
has invented a machine for making perfect fac- 
similes of these master-pieces of art on a reduced 
scale. 

The Parisian jewelers are unrivaled, and they 
derive their material from the four quarters of 
the globe, employing the diamonds of Brazil, the 
corals of the Mediterranean, the opals of Hon- 
duras, and the pearls of Ceylon. 

But French silk fabrics are specially conspicu 
ous and of surpassing beauty. 



o 



G 



The processes of manufacturing silk were for 
more than two thousand years unknown in Eu- 
rope. The article was introduced at Rome in 
the days of Pompey and Julius Cesar, but being 
brought by caravans from China, its price was so 
high when it reached the banks of the Tiber, 
that it was often sold for its weight in gold. 

The Emperor Aurelian, on returning from the 
East in the pride of victory, refused to his wife 
a silk dress, assigning as a reason that it was too 
great an extravagance even for a Roman Empress. 

An imperial edict of China forbade the expor- 
tation of the eggs of the silk worm under pain 
of death. About the year 552, however, two 
Persian monks who had lived a long time in 
China as missionaries, and were acquainted with 
the rearing of silk worms, stimulated by the 
gifts and promises of the Emperor Justinian, 
succeeded in conveying a large number of eggs 
concealed in hollow canes to Constantinople, 
where they watched their hatching and the de- 
velopment of the butterflies. The experiment 
was successful. 

According to a current legend, however, this 
was not the first successful attempt to carry silk- 
worm eggs out of China. A certain Chinese 



37 

princess, betrothed to a king of Khotan, brought 
from her father's court to her new home a num- 
ber of eggs concealed in her hair. This event is 
said to have happened about one hundred and 
forty years before the Christian era. We are 
not told what style of hair the ladies wore so 
long ago, but if the chignon or waterfall of the 
present day was then in vogue, the princess 
might have smuggled eggs enough to stock a 
province with silk worms. 

The silkworm is a very modest artisan. Born 
in the spring, ordinarily, about the middle of 
May, it feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree, 
and attains its full growth (being the size of the 
little finger of a child of twelve years) in about 
six weeks. Small as it is, according to M. de 
Quatrefages of the French Institute, it weighs 
72,000 times more, at its full development, than 
when hatched from the egg. 

Early in July it establishes the workshop of 
its wonderful manufacture. Placed in a com- 
fortable position, it proceeds to envelope itself in 
a cocoon formed by a filament of exceedingly 
fine silk emitted from the stomach of the insect. 
It soon disappears in the centre of the cocoon, 
and after about seventy-two hours of unremitting 



38 

labor, produces a thread frequently not less than 
1,600 yards in length. The silk is obtained by 
winding off the thread which forms the cocoon. 
The silk worm undergoes a transformation in the 
center of his dwelling, into a chrysalis, and then 
works its way out at one end of the cocoon, be- 
comes a butterfly, lays some hundreds of eggs 
and dies. 

At the Exhibition a collection of silk worms 
attracted universal attention. A quantity of 
eggs, of mulberry leaves, and all that relates to 
the raising of silk worms, were also displayed 
there. 

Some of the finest cocoons of all were from 
California, and from the most reliable informa- 
tion it is safe to predict, that at no distant day 
our Pacific coast will become one of the first 
silk-raising countries of the world, rivalling 
even China and Japan. There are now in South- 
ern California upwards of 10,000 flourishing 
mulberry trees, and some 300,000 of the finest 
cocoons have been produced there the past year. 

The silk manufacture was commenced at Ly- 
ons in 1520 under the auspices of Francis I. 
This city, the headquarters of the silk manufac- 
ture, at one time exported $45,000,000 worth 



39 

annually. Latterly the epidemic among the 
silk worms, and to some extent the changes of 
fashion, have severely injured this industry. 
The loss by this disease to France alone, M. 
Thiers has estimated at upward of 100,000,000f., 
or $20,000,000 in gold annually. Our own 
country thus far is entirely free from it. 

Before leaving the subject of French industry 
let us consider for a moment the prodigious ac- 
tivity of the great capital. Paris, with a popu- 
lation of 1,700,000 souls, has more than 100,000 
manufacturing establishments, doing a business 
of $675,000,000. This immense industrial activ- 
ity occupies 417,000 paid workmen and 133,000 
small employers who also labor with their hands, 
making a total of 550,000 working people — com- 
prising a body of men whose creative genius and 
artistic skill is scarcely more admired by the 
world than their political power and example is 
dreaded by ruling despots. 

As the whole industry of the world was repre- 
sented at the Exposition, Agriculture, of course, 
presented its claims to attentive study — agricul- 
ture, the basis of civilization, the breath of 
national life and prosperity. 

Some of its products appeared in the Champ 
de Mars, but the Island of Billancourt, at a short 



40 

distance in the Seine, was specially devoted to 
an agricultural display. 

I shall not attempt to enlarge upon this branch 
of our subject, but barely glance at the salient 
points presented in the Exposition so far as they 
relate to European countries. 

French agriculture is notable for the diversity 
of its products. At the Exposition France ex- 
hibited fine specimens of grain, hemp, flax, hops, 
tobacco, different kinds of woods, manufactured 
and unmanufactured, beet-root sugar, and wines, 
brandies and liquors so famous throughout the 
world. 

There was a good display of agricultural tools 
and small well-made machines of moderate cost, 
the land of that country being so minutely sub- 
divided that ponderous and costly machinery is 
in little demand. 

With a population of 38,000,000, there are 
24,000,000 who share in the ownership of the 
soil, # mostly in so minute spots, however, as to 
afford but narrow scope for either capital or 
skill. 

The exhibition of live stock, horses, cattle, 
sheep and swine, was creditable to France. 
Merinos, Dishly and South-down sheep have 

* Discours de M. Thids 1866. 



41 

been successfully acclimated. She produces fine 
horses, both light and heavy draught, and there 
has been a judicious introduction of foreign 
bloods. The live stock of other countries was 
excluded from the Exhibition on account of the 
prevailing epidemic among cattle. 

Great Britain has long been famous for the 
high pitch to which she has carried agricultural 
pursuits. But, unlike France, her soil is monop- 
olized in the hands of some 30,000 proprietors ; 
and the condition of her farm laborers is far 
from enviable, actually subsisting, as some of 
them do, on bread and lard. 

The London Punch once hit off this state of 
things, in a style of humorous exaggeration, by 
representing a farm hand at an agricultural fair 
— a gaunt skeleton, with the bones protruding 
from his skin, standing beside an enormous Suf- 
folk hog, depicted as a bloated mass of flesh, 
and suggested prizes for farm laborers as well 
as for fatted swine. 

She displayed at the Exposition a number 
of excellent agricultural implements, plows, 
threshing, reaping and mowing machines, &c, 
inferior, it is true, to our own, but solid and service- 
able. She contributed also a superior collection 
6 



42 

of cereals, preserved meats, and an assortment 
of wood from her colonies. 

Busy little Belgium and industrious Holland 
sent to the Exposition samples of their flax and 
hemp. Switzerland sent wheat, barley, potatoes, 
plants for forage and hay. Spain — flax, hemp, 
saffron and wool. Portugal was represented by 
rice, corn, wool and silk. Greece, by cotton, flax, 
oil and wax. From Turkey came tobacco, cotton, 
silk cocoons, madder, goat's and camel's hair, 
opium, senna and various gums. 

Italy, once foremost in European civilization, 
and which, let us hope, is now starting on a fresh 
career under the inspiration of independence and 
unity, sent fine specimens of cotton, hemp, mac- 
caroni, rice and preserved fruits. 

The French colonies of Algeria contributed 
good specimens of corn, cotton, wool, flax, mad 
der, silk cocoons and two plants, the alfa and diss, 
which promise to be valuable additions to the 
materials for making paper. 

The great central and northern nations made a 
creditable display. Austria contributed hops, 
wool, silk cocoons and tobacco. Bavaria, where 
43 per cent, of the people are farmers, hemp, flax, 
hops and tobacco. 



43 

It may be noted in passing that agriculture is 
steadily advancing in all the German states. In 
the Rhenish provinces alone there are 162 agri- 
cultural societies, 61 of which were formed' in 
1866. 

Colossal Russia, which is also making great 
improvements in agriculture, sent excellent sam- 
ples of hemp, flax, goat's hair, wool, tobacco and 
specimens of Black Sea wheat from the vast fer- 
tile region which has been termed the granary of 
Europe ; while Denmark and Sweden exhibited 
in the agricultural, as in other departments, proofs 
of intelligent industry. 

In a word, for I must forbear further details in 
what at least is but a dry catalogue, the Exposi- 
tion offered gratifying evidence that European 
agriculture from the North Cape to the Rock of 
Gibraltar, and from St. George's Channel to the 
Hellespont, is making steady progress, and that 
in no particular is the advance more marked than 
in the social improvement of the actual tillers of 
the soil. May we not hope that the day is not 
far distant when, cheered by our example, they, 
like the independent freemen of our own country, 
shall be — 

" Men ! high-minded men, 
Men who their duties know, 
And know their rights, and knowing dare maintain." 



44 

The marvels of the Exposition, which one 
brief hour permits us merely to touch upon, whose 
catalogue occupies two bulky volumes, attracted 
to Paris an immense concourse of people from all 
parts of the globe. 

Obeying the universal impulse, sovereigns left 
their palaces and, like their subjects, took the 
shortest road to the Champ de Mars. 

In this connection I should mention the sitting 
of the Inteknational Monetary Conference dur- 
ing the Exposition, attended by eminent men 
from most of the civilized countries, to consider 
the policy of unifying the coins of all nations, 
over which Prince Napoleon presided. The 
United States were there represented by the 
Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, whose able report to 
our government is now attracting world-wide 
attention. 

In the palmiest days of Napoleon I, he wrote 
to his friend Talma, the tragedian : " Come to 
Erfurt and you shall play to a whole pitfull of 
kings." Napoleon III might readily have fur- 
nished such an audience at Paris in 1867. Two 
emperors, eight kings, a sultan, a viceroy and six 
reigning princes were his guests during the Ex- 
position. But he who most riveted the attention 



45 

and excited the emotions of that vast concourse 
was neither monarch nor prince, but the man of 
ideas ; a statesman, by whose genius and will a 
colossal confederation was created out of the 
ruins of kingdoms and principalities, based on 
national unity, and which renders illustrious the 
name of Otto von Bismarck. 

The Sultan of Turkey and the Emperor of 
Russia especially engaged public attention, but 
not for the same reason. The attempt to assas- 
sinate the Czar by a Polish refugee caused great 
commotion in the capital, and we can well under- 
stand why the French Emperor, accustomed 
though he is to conceal his emotions, after wait- 
ing on the departing guest and seeing him safely 
seated in the railway train on his journey home, 
could not help rubbing his hands with delight at 
the thought of having got rid of the responsi- 
bility that weighed upon him. He is said to 
have remarked : " To receive an imperial guest 
is one thing ; to have him die on your hands is 
quite another affair." 

As for the Sultan, he excited among the popu- 
lace as much curiosity as Brigham Young would 
have done, and for the same reason, the presumed 
extent of his matrimonial felicity. A lady once 



46 

asked Talleyrand if the then Sultan of Turkey 
was married. " Very much, madam," was the 
reply. The French government papers, how- 
ever, hastened to assert that the present Sultan, 
Abdul Azzis, had repudiated polygamy and was 
the husband of one wife only. A still more 
curious and questionable story formed a part of 
the current gossip. In 1798, a young French 
Creole lady of Martinique, on her way to France, 
was driven by contrary winds into the Mediter- 
ranean, taken by Algerian corsairs and sold as a 
slave to the Sultan Selim III, whose favorite she 
soon became. She had a son, who was the grand- 
father of the present sultan. Now, the story 
goes, that this pretty Creole was cousin-german 
to M'lle Tascher de la Pagerie, another Creole, 
who became the Empress Josephine and grand- 
mother of Napoleon III. It. results from this 
history that the Emperor of France and the Sul- 
tan of Turkey belong to the same family. 

The presence of so many strangers gave unusual 
splendor to the distribution of prizes, which took 
place in the principal hall of the Palace of Indus- 
try, a vast building erected for the exhibition of 
1855 in the Champs Elysees, the finest promenade 
in Paris, perhaps in the world. 



47 

The walls of the building are of stone. The 
shape is that of a parallelogram 820 feet long 
and 354 feet broad. The roof is arched, and 
formed of iron and glass ; the height, from the 
floor to the center, is 108 feet. 

The prizes were divided into five classes. The 
grand prizes, costly gold medals, few in number, 
were bestowed on works of extraordinary merit. 
Gold medals (of less value) were awarded to the 
highest order of industrial art; silver medals to 
those of a high order ; bronze medals to merito- 
rious works ; and lastly, honorable mentions, equiv- 
alent to diplomas. 

But there is something more highly appreciated 
than any of these, the ribbon of the Legion of 
Honor, to win which thousands have made the 
greatest sacrifices. It is conferred alike upon 
those who have won glory on the field of battle, 
on those who have distinguished themselves by 
public services, great inventions, valuable manu- 
factures, or by acts of humanity or philanthropy. 
Thus the statesman, the divine, the soldier, the 
artist, the fabricant and the philanthropist may 
each merit and receive the decoration. 

The Legion of Honor was instituted by Napo- 
leon I. It has its staff, its officers of every grade 



48 

and its private soldiers, who are styled chevaliers, 
and may be met at almost every step in the 
street. They are recognized by a small red ribbon 
attached to the buttonhole of the coat. The man- 
ner in which it is folded indicates the legionary 
rank of the wearer. 

Every French prince is invested with the order 
at his birth, and all the sovereigns of Europe re- 
ceive it as a compliment from the ruler of France 
on their accession to the throne. 

With these single exceptions it is a distinction 
won by merit alone, and as such entitles the wearer 
to respect. 

Proud of our republican simplicity, and edu- 
cated as we all are in a contempt for glittering 
gew-gaws of courts with their stars and collars, 
often the emblems of servility or the rewards of 
degrading services, it is but just to say, that in 
France this order of civil distinction has appealed 
most successfully to that love of personal glory 
which is so characteristic of the. French people. 

It is a gratifying fact that to the exhibitors 
from our own country was awarded a greater pro- 
portion of prizes than to those of any other nation. 
The United States itself was honored, above all, 
for its contributions from the Quartermaster's 



49 

Department and Coast Survey, they being classed 
"Hors concours" and pronounced wholly unrivaled. 

As a mark of special consideration, the rank 
of Officier of the Legion of Honor was conferred 
by the Emperor upon the Hon. N. M. Beckwith, 
Commissioner General and President of the 
United States Commission. The Cross of Chev- 
alier of the Legion of Honor was also conferred 
by the Emperor upon several other Americans. 
Five grand prizes were given : one to Mr. Cyrus 
W. Field for the Atlantic telegraph cable ; one 
to Prof. Hughes for the printing telegraph sys- 
tem; one to the U. S. Sanitary Commission, 
whose admirable collection was made at the sole 
expense of Dr. Thomas W. Evans; one to Mr. 
Wm. C. Chapin, of the Pacific Mills of Lawrence, 
Mass., for the superior plan, organization and 
management of that establishment, and for pro- 
moting the material, moral and intellectual well- 
being of the operatives; and one to Mr. C. H. 
McCormick, of Chicago, 111., for his reaping ma- 
chine, after a thorough trial on the model farm of 
the Emperor, and in his presence. 

Eighteen gold medals were awarded for our 
pianos, fire-arms, reaping and mowing machines, 
wood-working, type-dressing and sewing ma- 
7 



50 

chines, a steam engine, a locomotive and tender, 
cotton, minerals and artificial teeth. Seventy-six 
silver medals were given to us for our scales, power 
looms, edge-tools, machine tools, steel plows, 
cabinet organs, bronzed iron ornaments, micro- 
scopes, astronomical instruments, cloths, muslins, 
cotton thread, boots and shoes, a brick machine, 
a buggy, a phaeton, a landscape painting, works 
for the blind, tobacco, sugar, hams, &c, &c. 

Besides these, ninety-eight bronze medals were 
awarded to us, and numerous honorable mentions 
were made. 

The festival of the distribution of rewards, of 
which our countrymen received their share, was 
unquestionably the most splendid pageant of 
modern times. Those who have had the fortune 
to witness in the great capital many grand 
fetes and reviews — monarchial, republican and 
imperial — and to attend balls and receptions 
given in honor of eventful days and distin- 
guished personages, will affirm that not one 
of them approached this in magnificence and 
impressiveness. 

The Emperor and Empress of France, Prince 
Napoleon and Princess Clothilde, the Princess 
Mathilde, the Sultan, the Prince of Wales, the 



51 

Prince of Prussia, the Prince of Orange, the 
Prince of Saxony, Prince Humbert of Italy, and 
their suites, were driven to the Palace in the 
great state coaches built for Louis XIV and care- 
fully preserved at Versailles, all of them regilded 
for this occasion. 

In the great hall where the distribution took 
place were 18,000 spectators. It was resplendent 
with the uniforms of ambassadors, marshals, sen- 
ators and other officials of high rank, while all 
the invited guests were in full dress ; that is, in 
black dress coats, pantaloons and vests, with 
white cravats and white kid gloves, as specially 
requested on the cards of invitation. The ladies 
were also attired as for a grand party. 

In the center rose a pyramidal mass composed 
of those productions which had been pronounced 
worthy of reward. 

At the entrance of the sovereigns, a band of 
1,200 musicians struck up a triumphal march 
composed for the occasion by the venerable Ros- 
sini, with the accompaniment of pealing bells 
and detonating cannon. The effect of this storm 
of musical thunder, as it rolled through the vaulted 
hall, was indescribably grand. 

The distribution of rewards was made by the 
Emperor in person. His brief speech, with which 



52 

all of you are familiar, was well conceived and 
expressed, and spoken in a clear, shrill voice. 
It was heard distinctly by at least two-thirds of 
the immense assemblage. 

Though the Emperor distributed the prizes, 
there was one exception. It was discovered that 
he himself was one of the fortunate exhibitors, 
and a medal was decreed to him for his model of 
a workingman's house. 

In this dilemma, the little Prince Imperial 
(now eleven years old) came to his rescue, and 
stepping forward, gracefully bestowed the prize 
upon his father. 

The ceremony ended by the Emperor and Em- 
press, and Prince Imperial, the rest of the Napo- 
leon family, and the royal guests of France, 
making the entire tour of the hall. 

When the imperial party was passing the eligi- 
ble spot- by the side of the foreign ambassadors 
where were placed the Commissioners of the 
United States, one of our countrymen, a soldier 
in the late war, wearing his uniform as Col- 
onel, mounted a bench and called for three hearty 
American cheers for the Emperor and Empress. 
Without discussing the taste and propriety of 
the act, suffice it to say that such a shout went 



53 

up as only American lungs can produce ; and the 
usually impassive face of the Emperor bright- 
ened, and the Empress smiled, as they acknow- 
ledged this spontaneous tribute of respect to the 
ruler who was offering the hospitality of his 
country to the whole world. 

I have rapidly placed before you, Mr. Presi- 
dent, and gentlemen, as well as I was able, the 
principal features of the World's great show of 
1867 as it impressed my memory. 

The vastness of the theme renders all attempt 
at minute description unsatisfactory. Every 
visitor you meet has his own story to tell, but 
few if any left the Exhibition with a feeling ot 
dissatisfaction. 

Certainly no one, however well informed, 
could have studied that display of the industry 
of all nations without learning much that was 
new to him. Nor could one fail, after such a 
study, to be convinced of the certain progress of 
humanity, continually rising to a higher plane 
and moving onward to a brighter future. 

The Exhibition of 1855 was held when France 
was engaged in a deadly struggle with the might- 
iest power of Europe. 

War could not paralyze the arm of peace. 
Even then, with the din of arms resounding in 



54 

the East, the Emperor said: "In view of the 
many marvels displayed before our eyes, the first 
impression is a desire for peace. Peace alone 
can further develop the true products of human 
intelligence. You must then all wish like me 
for this peace to be prompt and durable." 

The Exhibition of 1867 was held in a time of 
peace, though the political skies of Europe are 
never clear, and the war cloud even then was 
imminent. 

One of the most significant and gratifying fea- 
tures of the Exposition was, that the representa- 
tives of the foremost states of the globe there 
met to give pledges to the cause of international 
amity and social progress : a grand congress of 
nations convened to secure good-fellowship among 
all civilized peoples, with agriculture, science, 
art and commerce officiating as envoys extraor- 
dinary. The remark of Cicero, that all liberal 
arts have a common bond and relationship, was 
never more beautifully exemplified than on this 
occasion, when France, Prussia, Russia, Austria, 
England, Italy and the United States, each of 
which had so recently astonished the world by 
its prowess in arms, were now seen devoting 
their genius, skill and resources to stimulating 



5 



K 



the rivalries of peace rather than provoking the 
perils of war. Mingling with their representa- 
tives on terms of equality, were those of the 
smaller powers of both hemispheres, all vieing 
with each other to promote peace on earth and 
good will to men. This sublime spectacle has 
doubtless done more for civilization and the con- 
cord of the world than could have been accom- 
plished by many years of the more formal and 
perhaps less sincere labors of the ripest statesmen 
and acutest diplomatists of the age. 

It is gratifying to know that in this grand con- 
gress our country played a leading part. Encour- 
aged by this fact, as well as by the vigor and 
elasticity of our institutions, tested and proved by 
recent trials, we may anticipate for her a glorious 
future. 

The only disturbing element in our midst hav- 
ing passed away never again to return, we may 
reasonably hope that our fertile fields will never 
again be reddened by blood. 

No foreign foe will ever dare to set foot upon 
our soil. We may, therefore, devote all our ener- 
gies to the cultivation of the works of peace — to 
the arts and sciences, agriculture, commerce and 
manufactures. 



56 

Let us, then, " study to be quiet, and to do our 
own business, and to work with our own hands." 

The time will come when we shall equal the 
most advanced nations of Europe in every mate- 
rial branch of art and industry. 

Hitherto we have devoted our energies princi- 
pally to the useful and the practical, and in this 
we have distanced Europe. Without losing sight 
of these, as we grow in wealth and taste, let us 
strive to compete in articles of elegance and lux- 
ury with those countries whose civilization and 
progress are the growth of ages. 



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